Gundagai Sharks Swim Club: Back row L to R: Maddy Warren, Sarah Gailey, Lane Johnson, Eliza Graham, Leila Gaskin, Molly Lott, Joey Gailey, Sophie Graham, Emmy Gaskin, Pepper Maconochie, Charlie Shannon, Vann Reichel. Front Row L to R: Pippi Nicholls, Olivia Shaw, Reed Reichel, Jasper Maconochie, Imogen Graham, Josie Lott, Lucy Nicholls, Bronte Smart, Evie McFawn, Daisy Maconochie, Maggie McFawn, Aiden Shaw, Beau Smart.
Last week, the Gundagai Swim Club hosted the Southern Inland South West Zone Qualifying Meet No. 4 at Gundagai Pool. This is the first meet that has been held in Gundagai for 2 years and since the pool has undergone refurbishment.
Tom Gaskin, Gundagai Swimming Club President said the meet went well and everyone had a great day.
“It was a great day and enjoyed by all that attended. The whole day was a good day for all the families that came and was a great opportunity for the Gundagai community to show off their new facilities. The meet ran well and was pretty laid back, which is what we wanted,” Tom said.
“This is the first time there has been anything like this held at Gundagai Pool since the refurbishments. We had 150 swimmers from Tumut, Cootamundra, Harden, Yass, Gundagai, Binalong, Albury and Wagga,” Tom said.
“We had about 28 swimmers from our local club, and for a lot of them this was their first experience being at a district meet, so it was a pretty new thing for them,” Tom said.
“The Gundagai kids got lots of ribbons and it was all about participating and having a go on the day, but most of the rib-bons were taken out by other clubs,” Tom said.
Tom explained that over each summer swim season there are five meets held in the south west zone, so all the clubs get put in to the rotation each year and five different clubs would normally host next year’s meets “It’s up to us as a club if we want to host it, and as a club are wanting to do it as much as we can to keep swimming relevant in Gundagai,” Tom said.
Tom said the club has had a resurgence in the past couple of years with kids attending the meets.“The club hadn’t done the carnival for a while, but when our kids started attending, we asked if we could attend carnivals and then we did, and we built from that, getting a few more kids involved,” Tom said.
“Participation in the district carnivals had been lost for a while, but we are trying to get a presence back in and build up what presence we already have,” Tom said.
Tom said over recent years the club has had more members join.“We’ve had more members join over recent years, it probably did die away there for a bit but we’ve got a lot of young families joining now.”
The last SISA carnival for the season will be held this Sunday in Temora. While training and meets stop for the Gundagai club over winter, the club do encourage their members to continue training over the cooler period.
“We do encourage our members to find somewhere that does cater for a winter season, whether that’s Coota, Junee or Wagga, to keep their skills up,” Tom said.
-Emily Flint
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